I am up to 29000 KMs on my original OEM fitted Dunlops and the front is getting very close to being worn - there is only about 2 mm of meat left on it. The rear is a little better it still has about 3-4 mm left on it.


I am interested in hearing how many Ks other people have got out of their original OEM fitted tyres before needing replacing? Have I done well getting 29000 Kms out of them?

 

first off is translating..about 18,000 miles is excellent.

I don;t get that much, the desert heat and the sometimes rough road surfaces take a toll.

in terms of replacing- don;t wait too long.

I wrecked about 30 years ago and I think I may not have if my rear tire had been in better shape. been kicking myself ever since

Mike

 

I've been riding almost 50 years now and learned long ago that tyres have two lives: one when they are down to the wear bars, or the bottoms of the treads (wear bars are not yet 50 years old!), the second one comes earlier. That is when the tyre no longer rides with the same degree of confidence-inspiring handling, especially in bad weather or the wet. I tend to change then, not at the wear-bars.

I spent last weekend away on my Buell, which has recently reached that point, with it's rear tyre. It is tending to steer the bike a little while banking over, so it's time is nigh. Fresh tyres over the winter! I suspect I would already have replaced yours by now, they've given good service.

 

OP -

Here's one to ponder.

I recently returned from a 4-day, 1,200 mile trip in the mountains of West Virginia, near Elkins. Before leaving on the trip, a friend who rides a '13 SE Road King, commented his tires were close to needing replacement. At our meeting destination on Day 1 of the trip, I looked at his tires. You could barely see the remnants of a tread pattern on both the front and rear tires, they were essentially bald slicks, however no tire threads were showing.

I asked him how many miles on the tires? He said they were the original factory tires with about 33-34K miles...hard to believe. I shook my head, and was happy to have him lead almost the entire trip. Luckily, the only rain we saw was on the interstate for about an hour on Day 1. It was dry riding conditions on the mountain switchbacks. Almost the entire time, he rode about 5-10 mph faster than I normally would have. I like to enjoy the ride and the scenery in the mountains. I couldn't believe he rode those tires for that long. On his ride home, he hit a bad pothole in the dark that he said bottomed out the front/rear suspension, and nearly launched him off the bike. Miraculously, there was no tire blowout. He's now shopping for new tires...

I have about 9K miles on my '14 RK, and the stock Dunlops look really good. I expect I'll get 15K miles at least on the rear tire...and I prefer to replace tires well before they absolutely need changing.

Ride safe and enjoy...

 

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1st i wan't to say i would never ever ride/use motorcycle street tires down to the lvl the OP stated because they are unsafe (esp in wet cond!) when tread depth is that low/thin & rec he not do that again.
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Ok,moving on to what GBrown said:

" tyres have two lives: one when they are down to the wear bars, or the bottoms of the treads (wear bars are not yet 50 years old!), the second one comes earlier. That is when the tyre no longer rides with the same degree of confidence-inspiring handling, especially in bad weather or the wet. I tend to change then, not at the wear-bars '

I have also been riding street bikes 45+ yrs (counting riding trail/dirt bikes before hitting the street 50+yrs) and could not have said it better then he did!

Street bike/touring tires are worn enough well before hitting wear bars to be unsafe (esp in wet cond) not to mention the reduced ride comfort too.

The Michelin C's currently on my 09 flhtcu have approx 15,500-16kmiles on them and the rear tire has a little ways to go (2,500-3k to max of 4k+ miles) before hitting wear bars & front tire has approx 5,500-6k+ miles left it before hitting the wear bars.

And with 15,500-16k miles on the C2's there is no noticeable cupping showing on either of those tires,but i do use ride-on so the tires are always kept in perfect balance thru their entire srv'c life which is key to avoiding cupping and getting a long tread life too.

Thats darn good tire mileage IMHO (esp rear) when the bike is ridden 2up majority of the time vs the stock dunlops that came on my 09 flhtcu that were complete shot @ 9,700 miles when i bought the bike off the original owner.

The rear tire was mostly bald with almost no tread showing at all and front had barely enough tread to pass yrly safety insp IF they wanted to be nice about it.

The front was cupped so bad it howled ,moaned & vibrated so bad i changed it at same time i changed rear tire which was when i had the C2's installed.

But even though there is some mileage left in the C2's with 15,500-16k miles on them thus far " for safety sake " i am going to have them changed along with installing the ride-on to ensure proper balance @ all times along with also protecting them from up to 1/4" punctures at the same time too.

This will be the 4th set of motorcycle tires i have used ride-on in with great results every time when it comes to always being in perfect ballance with no cupping thru the tires srv'c life.

But thank goodness i have never had a situation come up to actually see/test ride-on's ability to seal a puncture from a nail or screw.(PHEW!,/LOL!)

Happy motoring!

Scott

 

Adding to Scott's words, another risk with tyres whose treads have worn down close to the wear bars is that of punctures. Fortunately modern tyres are much less prone to those, compared with my earlier biking years, thanks to modern materials in their carcass, but the classic bike puncture is a nail flicked up by the front wheel into the path of the rear tyre. Phut!

I used to carry a small jack on my first Harley, back in the '70s, so I could remove either wheel on the roadside, to repair a puncture - in fact carried a fresh tube. Fortunately I haven't had to do that for many years. OMG - what have I said......

 

For factory Dunlops, that's good mileage. Some may top that, but you did good. Sounds similar with my experiences.
My Grandaddy used to say "Ride on good rubber, and drink good liquor, and you'll live a good, long life". (Keep in mind that in His day and time, the differences varied from good to very, very bad - on both counts!)

 

Rear on my '15 Limited Low was done at 15k, front may see 20.

Not bad.


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The OEM Dunlops are very good tires. Most of our local Rushmore riders get 25 thousand miles or more. A fellow HOG member just turned 30 thousand miles on his 2015 Limited OEM tires.

 

29000 K !!!!

With the OEM tires on my BO, I didn't get 1/3 of that mileage on the rear (8000 K) and will get approx 2/3 of that out of the front.

Compared to my Dunlop E3 rear tire replacement, the OEM tire was a complete POS. I'll get 10,000 K out of the E3 easy and its handling characteristics are remarkably and unconditionally way better.

This is just a guess on my part, but I plan on changing my front tire to an E3 radial when the time comes and suspect the wear characteristics of both front and rear tires will improve when both front and rear are radial. Dunno exactly why the MoCo mixes radial and bias on the BO's but they do.